Alexandra Hahn

is a PhD student at GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel. In the group of Marine Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics led by Dr. Reid Brennan, she is working on local adaptation in Baltic Sea copepods. She is interested in ecosystem change and what coping mechanisms can help organisms to survive in a changing ocean. Her work includes field collections, lab experiments, transcriptomics and population genomics.

The WAC student grant is helping support her work investigating low salinity tolerance in Baltic Sea copepods, focusing on Acartia tonsa and A. bifilosa. Using a transcriptomics approach, the study aims to reveal the molecular mechanisms behind low salinity resilience, comparing gene expression patterns between species and populations to explore potential implications for species distribution, niche differentiation, and adaptation to changing Baltic Sea conditions.